Today officially marks the end of Microsoft’s support for the XP operating system, something they have been threatening since September of 2007.
That doesn’t mean that XP won’t work anymore – it just means that there will be no more patches, security updates, etc. from Bill Gates & Co. XP will continue to work as well as ever until something (probably something external) causes it to fail. If you still use Internet Explorer, now would be a good time to switch to Chrome or Firefox.
Just because you can no longer get Microsoft support for your XP system doesn’t mean it isn’t available. “While many customers have already completed their migrations to a modern OS, some large customers with complex Windows XP deployments may not have their migrations complete by April 8,” a Microsoft spokeswoman said in a statement. “To help those customers, we offer Custom Support for Windows XP as a temporary, last resort to help bridge the gap during a migration process to a modern OS, as the newest technologies provide the optimal chance to be and stay secure. We are sure that our customers are taking the necessary steps to protect their customers.”
That custom support isn’t cheap. Negotiated on a per company basis, estimated cost of the service could be as much as $200 per computer. The United Kingdom is paying 5.548 million pounds to Microsoft for an additional year of support to maintain critical and important security updates for Windows XP, Office 2003, and Exchange 2003.
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